The Rescuer (26 page)

She pushed her hands into her pockets. "I'l always be your friend, Stephen. Whether you believe or not, that isn't going to

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change. But if you don't believe, you limit our relationship to friends only. And I'l be forced to spend eternity without you. That grieves me."

"I know it does. 1 often wonder what I'm holding out for, but I'm not sure."

"When you can answer that, you'l have this resolved."

She smiled at him. "Let it go for tonight."

Stephen smiled back. "For a day or two." He nudged Blackie away from his coffee cup. "Would you like to come out to the farm this week? Maybe Wednesday, after we do another round of searching the jewelry store? I have something to show you."

"I'd enjoy that."

"I think I'l invite JoAnne and Ken, whichever O'Mal ey's can make it, your parents and have my first open house."

"Oh, this sounds like fun. Let me know if I can help with food or such."

"You got it."

Neil had turned the second bedroom in the apartment into a storage room. Stephen steadied a stack of boxes and lifted off the top three. He carried the boxes into the living room where Dave had set up a worktable. Neil could have hidden jewelry in practical y anything from the flour canister to a box buried behind dozens of other boxes. The only way to make sure they didn't miss something was to look through everything.

"If Neil was deeply involved in these thefts, he'd have pictures of the pieces he was duplicating, someplace to store the stolen jewels until they cooled off, and a buyer. Can we also work this problem by figuring out if he traveled? Who his regular customers were?"

"When did he have his first stroke?" Dave asked.

"A little over a year ago. I know the paralysis he was suffer-233

ing on his left side made it difficult for him to do the jewelry repair work any longer."

"So that first stroke would have basical y ended the creation of fakes. If Neil was dealing with stolen gems, he had a year to plan how he would close it down."

"We stil don't know if Neil ever took more than the one piece I found in the barn, Dave."

"We know that diamond ring was stolen and replaced with a high-quality fake. And we know the guy who blackened your eye had an idea something was there to find. That's enough to suggest we're on the right track."

Stephen looked around the room. "He's had a stroke, he has decided he's going to move, and he knows he basical y wants to shut down whatever he'd been involved with. He could either sel the stolen pieces at a big discount and move them al on to buyers or wrap them up and put them away somewhere he would consider safe."

"He didn't need money," Dave said. "What if he decided to keep the last pieces rather than sel them?

His wife is dead, his health is fading, and he's got one interest left in his life: the jewelry. If he decided to keep them just because they were beautiful pieces, he's going to keep them somewhere he can see them occasional y."

"If he went to the trouble of making a final place to hide them, he'd design it to be exactly what he needed."

Dave stopped his search. "If he's got several pieces, he'd have them stored together."

"It's what I would do."

Dave sighed. "I agree with you. I'm just not sure what we do next. Searching in boxes, cupboards, behind furniture, and in wal s is doable. Getting inside Neil's head is not."

Stephen circled the room. "How many pieces of jewelry would you suspect might be stashed?"

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"Rings, bracelets, a couple necklaces, maybe a few real y expensive pieces like he had in the vault."

"So they could fit in something about the size of a shoebox? Maybe flatter and longer?"

"That sounds about right."

"Maybe inside a piece of furniture then." Stephen picked up cushions from the couch. He tipped up the coucn to check the framing to see if it looked like anything had been modified. Stephen turned over the chair by the window. The fabric had been taped to the frame in a couple places. He pul ed aside the tape and used his smal pocketknife to pry up a couple staples holding the fabric. "It's got to be inside something."

"Try this one," Dave tossed over his pocketknife.

"What is this, the Boy Scout special deluxe model?"

"You never know with Kate what you're going to need."

Stephen thought about that a moment and laughed.

"You're right." He used the pinchers to tug up the edge of the cushion. "This works." He didn't find the box he sought, but he picked up a penny. "Nineteen forty-two.

It's stil got a shine. Meghan loves old coins."

"Does she?"

"Something about the idea of holding something real y old." Stephen tucked the penny in his pocket. "I'm having a gathenng out at the farm Wednesday afternoon, a kind of house warming party. Could you and Kate stay over another night and come?"

"We'l be there. I'm worried her blood pressure is a little high, and that job of hers isn't helping. She could use another day or two here."

"What's going on? I thought it was a pretty low-key job."

"She's not in control anymore. She hears her friends on the SWAT team and the emergency response group are out on a tough cal and she's listening to hear if they're okay. I think it would be easier on her to be at the scene in the communication

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van making suggestions than being so far out of the loop."

"They're comrades on the front line and it feels like she's abandoned them."

"Something like that. She doesn't want an emergency response job and those risks now that we're having a family, but I don't think either one of us thought through the ramifications of it."

"She's trying for homicide."

"I know." Dave sighed. "I'm praying she doesn't get it, Stephen, and you may not tel her that. She was a great hostage negotiator because she walked right up to the line between life and death and put herself between death and the innocents caught up in events. She survived her job because she won and people walked out alive. For Kate to be working homicides-I'd give her about six months before she brought the job home with her, unable to shut it off."

Dave shook his head. "I don't know what might be best right now. Robbery is burying her in bureaucracy and cases so old and numerous that she can't solve enough of them to feel like she is successful and contributing something worthwhile."

Stephen tipped over another chair. "She isn't supervisor material."

"What she is, is one of the best hostage negotiators I've ever seen. I think she would make a bril iant teacher. I want her working at FBI and teaching at Quantico."

Stephen burst out laughing. "Kate, a Fed?"

"I haven't figured out how to approach her with the idea."

"My suggestion: stand far across the room when you do."

"She's not going to like the idea of working for a federal bureaucracy?" Dave teased.

"It wil never happen. She's not good at working according to anyone else's script."

"Wel Kate and I have got to figure out a solution."

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Stephen moved from inspecting the furniture to checking the wal s for any signs of construction in the last few years. He lifted down the wal clock. "We need to find at least one more hidden gem; then you'l have part of your solution. Kate can stay here a few more days to give you more time to think."

"How about four square diamonds and three emeralds set in a silver and gold starburst brooch?"

Stephen turned.

Dave had a piece of jewelry about the size of a smal sand dol ar resting in the palm of his hand.

"He had it wrapped in velvet and slid into a closed case along with his wife's diary. This one was sentimental."

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Stephen watched from his hammock as Meghan walked the path from her parents' home toward the pond and the path that led to his house. He reached down and lazily moved a piece on the chessboard resting on an overturned shipping case. "Check."

Jack scowled.

"It's the bishops. You keep forgetting I like to go deep,"

Stephen remarked. "We're over this direction, Meg."

She paused Blackie.

"I hung a hammock under the oak trees beside the pond."

Blackie led her toward them.

"Do you have a fishing line in the water?" she asked, drawing closer.

He glanced over at the pond. "The bobber is getting poked a few times as baby fish check out my worm. I can cast while lying in my hammock. It doesn't get better than this." He nudged his fishing pole a little more upright in the holder driven into the ground to tighten the slack in the line created by the light breeze.

"This is going to be his hiding place, or so he says,"

Jack added, moving his rook.

Stephen looked at the board. "Do you real y want to do that?"

"Just move."

Stephen moved his pawn. "Checkmate."

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Jack sat back and studied the board. "I'm not playing you again until we figure out an adequate handicap."

"Hey, I gave you a queen."

"And decimated me before I could ever use mine,"

Jack replied.

Blackie stopped to check out the board. "Am I early?

Or are the party plans already done?" Meghan asked1*

Stephen smiled. "I've got the gril ready, the chicken marinating, the salad, rol s, and pies from the restaurant now in the refrigerator. I know how to arrange a party in an hour."

"I'm impressed."

"There are two chairs about three feet straight ahead, and a blanket spread out on the bank of the pond. Take your pick."

"I smel freshly cut grass." She took a seat on the blanket and undipped Blackie's harness to let him go off duty.

"Jack helped me get the big mower going. We only managed to knock over a couple posts and about five feet of fencing while we figured out how to execute turns." Stephen touched her shoulder and offered her a soda from the cooler. "We're relaxing after hard labor."

"Sweaty hard labor," Jack added, greeting Blackie.

"I'm glad you came over, Jack."

"Cassie and I had a rare scheduling agreement to have the same day off. And I'm for starting up that gril .

I'm getting hun-

gry."

Stephen checked his watch. "Yes, it would be good to at least head that direction." He reeled in his fishing line.

"I'l take the chairs back to the house."

"Thanks, Jack."

Meghan folded up the blanket. "We're going to have to break in that chess set you made for me. I've been practicing with Dad."

"I'd like that. If you want to take my arm, Blackie can keep wandering." She complied and he led her to the house.

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"Do you know if Kate heard anything yet about the brooch Dave found?" Meghan asked.

"She hasn't mentioned anything."

"I hope it's not stolen."

"It could have been a gift Neil made for his wife, Meg.

Don't borrow trouble until we know something for sure."

"I'm trying not to. It's just unsettling to realize I didn't know Neil like I thought I did. And as executor it gets strange, knowing some of the jewels he has might be stolen."

"The sheriff was out to the house this morning, and he's agreed it's best to keep news about these pieces quiet. There is no benefit to having it discussed at the diner. Kate wil stay a few more days and help us with the search. Once there are more facts to work with, they'l decide the next course of action."

"Good. I'd real y like to keep this quiet."

"Meg, remember that I'm listed in Neil's trust document.

If this becomes public knowledge and you need me to finish wrapping up the work at the store, I'd be glad to step in and help you out."

"Would you?"

"You bet."

She relaxed. "I've known Neil al my life, been in his home, helped care for his wife. I don't want to learn he was a felon through al those years."

"Then you have my promise. If you need to step back, just ask."

"I wil ."

Stephen opened the gate for them.

"Have Marcus and Shari arrived yet?"

"They'l be here anytime. They flew into Chicago this morning and are driving out." He paused her before she could turn toward the house. "Leave the blanket here on the gate. What I want to show you is down by the barn."

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She left the folded blanket over the top railing.

"This way." He led with her hand tucked in his arm.

"Do you have your carpentry shop up and running?"

"Yes. I'm starting my first piece for Kate, a cubbyhole storage unit she wants for beside the crib. You're welcome to come over and keep me company as I work anytime."

"I'l do that."+

Stephen stopped by the fenced-in area he had repaired and completed. "Why don't you wait here? I'l be right back." The sounds would give him away soon and he would prefer to have this be a surprise. He walked over to the enclosed pen and brought back his surprise.

"Hold out your arms, about a foot apart."

She did so and he smiled. She was a trusting lady.

He handed her the surprise. "Stephen?" Her whispered delight was worth every bit of the effort to make the moment happen. She sat on the ground where she had stood, cradling the animal. "You got a lamb."

"Three, and their mothers."

Her hands gently ran across the animal. "Keep Blackie away so he won't scare this baby."

"Blackie is over by the pen getting acquainted with the others. It looks like a calm greeting session al around."

"You bought lambs-I'm delighted, but why?"

He laughed at the stunned way she repeated it. "I also bought a baby goat. I'm creating a petting zoo."

She leaned her head back to look at him. "You aren't."

He crouched beside her. "Yep, I am. And the answer to your question is easy: Why not?"

She laughed. "Good point. Fish...animals. You're making good use of this place."

"It's fun, Meg. I don't think I've done enough fun things in my life."

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"Wel this is a good start."

"The goat is a rambunctious little guy. I'l take you to meet him next."

She buried her face in the soft coat of the lamb. "I'm glad you came to Silverton."